Although the “Iraqi money affair” is regarded as a post-Dismissal sideshow it may well be part of a much larger endeavour: the flow of Middle Eastern money to unions and pro-Arab, anti-Israel activists in Australia. The cast of shady characters makes such speculation impossible to avoid.
Seven days before Gough Whitlam’s dismissal, the US Ambassador in Canberra told Whitlam that neither the CIA nor any other American government agencies secretly funded any political group or candidate in Australia, and the assurance was put into writing for the Department of Foreign Affairs. In Washington, the Assistant Secretary of State called on the Australian Deputy Head of Mission and repeated the claim.[1] Five days after the dismissal, Whitlam authorised an attempt to obtain and launder secret election funding from Iraq’s ruling Ba’ath Party for the ALP.
Recent evidence in declassified ASIO and Commonwealth Police files, and other accounts which have emerged since 1975, offer fresh perspectives on the excuses, cover-ups and agreed-upon fictions of the “Iraqi money affair”. Accounts of Whitlam’s breakfast meeting with the head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and his companion, a relation of Saddam Hussein representing the Ba’ath Party, generally run on conventional lines with Whitlam being criticised for his behaviour then generously excused, as the event is made to appear a rather unimportant sideshow. At the same time, Rupert Murdoch, writing the biggest story in Australia’s political history, is pilloried for having unfairly used the event to attack Whitlam. This modern fairy tale has two parts—the lead-up to Whitlam’s encounter with the Iraqi thugs, and the events around the scandal becoming public knowledge.
Once upon a time, the Sunday after the dismissal, an ALP executive meeting was held in Sydney to discuss the unplanned-for election. Pro-Arab left-winger and Victorian Senate candidate Bill Hartley suggested to ALP National Secretary David Combe that campaign funds could be raised in the Middle East. Combe carried the proposal to Whitlam, who in the stress of the political disaster, approved the idea and suggested that well-known menswear retailer Reuben Scarf, the director of the non-profit Scarf Foundation, had proven Middle East contacts and would be a suitable go-between to act for the ALP.[2] Late that afternoon, before returning to Melbourne, Hartley contacted Henry Fischer, a co-director of the Foundation, and discussed the scheme with him. Fischer was interested and Hartley phoned the news to Combe. That night Whitlam and Combe visited Fischer at home. There were nuts and a bottle of German wine. Whitlam had a glass, Combe and Fischer finished the bottle—never mind that Fischer was a teetotaller.[3] No money was talked about, yet several days later Fischer flew to Baghdad to arrange the generous gift for the ALP. Two good-fairy Iraqi emissaries, secret police chief and torturer Farouk Abdulla Yehya and Saddam’s relative Ghafil Jassim Al-Tikriti, arrived and met Whitlam for breakfast and half a million dollars US was (Fischer in 1976)[4] or was not (Jenny Hocking in 2012)[5] handed over, and anyway Fischer stole the money (Fairfax Media in 2015).[6]